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FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT WGCI FM - PAGE 2

It was the year of the unexpected on the airwaves and off. - Chicago radio's best-known duo stopped talking to each other and split up. - The city's top urban contemporary station became the city's top radio station, period. - While broadcasters and the governmental agency that regulates them struggled with the issue of "indecency," the broadcaster most often linked with indecency both wore out his welcome in Chicago and penned a No. 1 national best-seller. Certainly the year's top story in local radio was the acrimonious breakup of Steve Dahl and Garry Meier after nearly 15 years as a broadcast team.

Radio executive Elroy R.C. Smith, whose responsibilities at Clear Channel Chicago were streamlined under a management realignment in March that included the end of his 15-year run in charge of programming at urban radio station WGCI-FM 107.5, is expected to tell staff Tuesday that he will leave Clear Channel next month at the end of his contract, sources say. No official confirmation was available. Smith was operations and program director for WGCI and WVAZ-FM 102.7, and operations director for WGRB-AM 1390 until a March shakeup.

We were at the corner of Michigan Avenue and South Water Street when, in a post-lunch haze, we misread one of those honorary street signs as "Del Shannon Way." For a moment we marveled at the generosity of the City Council to celebrate a fine, non-Chicago rock artist who had a burst of success in the 1960s, then suffered a long, tragic decline. Quickly, however, we realized that the sign actually said "Shannon Dell Way"-- to honor the longtime WGCI-FM radio personality (real name Karen Grace Jones)

A total of $75,000 in free radio advertising will be given to Chicago retailers under a program announced by Citicorp Establishment Services, which provides credit card services to the businesses. Under the promotion scheduled to begin Monday, 15 establishments, including restaurants, clothiers, home improvement stores and others that display Citibank Classic MasterCard and Visa application displays, could be selected to receive $5,000 each of free radio air time. The promotion is the first in a 15-month program designed to heighten usage of Citibank cards and Citicorp Establishment Services, according to Bruce W. Weber, head of Citicorp Establishment Services.

The last two weeks have not been particularly good ones for Irene Mojica, the WGCI-FM 107.5 overnight personality who a year and a half ago filed a $3.42 million lawsuit against her station's parent company, Gannett. Mojica, a Hispanic who has worked at the black-oriented radio station and its AM sister station for 12 years, sued for sex and racial discrimination, charging she had been denied promotion to a better shift and was paid less than other WGCI deejays because of her race and sex. She also charged sexual harassment against a former WGCI-FM program director.

It's just after midnight on WGCI-FM 107.5, the No. 1 urban contemporary radio station in Chicago. After the song "Between the Sheets" ends, a flurry of commercials begins. Car dealers. Diet pills. Houses of worship. "There's a church right in your neighborhood, where your spirit comes alive," sings a woman in hearty gospel style. As the music trails off, the ad poses these questions: "Are you trying to get your life together? Do you need real answers concerning relationships, finances and your purpose in life?

Urban contemporary station WGCI-FM strenghthened its first-place lead in the afternoon drive-time, while top-40 radio WBBM-FM lost listeners in every time slot in Arbitron radio ratings released Wednesday. WGCI, which won a 7.5 share of the 3 to 7 p.m. drive-time audience, bested WLUP-FM, with a 5.7 share, and WBBM-FM, which fell from second to third place with a 5.5 share. "It's the music," said WGCI general manager Marv Dyson. "I talked to Doug Banks (who moved from morning to afternoon drive in January)

In 1986, WGCI-FM deejay Robert Harrison slunk out of Chicago in disgrace, an admitted sex offender who had pleaded guilty to abusing his 15-year-old Naperville baby-sitter. At the time, Harrison, known to listeners as "Bob Wall," made a comment that sounded like the musings of a man with nothing to cling to but his dreams. Harrison had been fired from his $325,000-a-year job as WGCI's highly rated morning jock and was to begin working for $250 a week in his father-in- law's Tampa, Fla., construction firm.

That Steve Harvey. What a humanitarian. Last Wednesday, the comic, radio personality and sitcom star attempted to mediate a truce between rival East and West Coast rappers in Los Angeles, along with Snoop Doggy Dogg and producer Sean "Puffy" Combs. On Friday, he was in Chicago bonding with an audience during a show at the Chicago Theatre, the first of four scheduled, sold-out affairs this past weekend. It remains to be seen how Harvey's rap goodwill gesture will pan out. But the standing ovation he received after his more than hourlong set Friday attested to his success in bringing joy to his fans.

They came punked, preppy and polished Saturday to the Rhythm & Blues Festival at Olive Park. Many had enjoyed a summer of such fests both on the lakefront and in the neighborhoods and were using this one to end their season of outdoor music, food and fun with a bang. "If they had fests in the winter, I`d be there," said Janet Massey between bites of her barbecued ribs. "I`d never seen any of the musicians performing here in person before--and since the whole thing was only $5--I said why not."